Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1887-02-12
The Southern People.

Mississippi Valley Farmer.
In the comments with which the
various publications of the country
are teeming just now, on the remark
able development going on of South
ern industries, the Northern writers
often express great amazement at the
energy and enterprise the Southern
people are displaying, as if it were
very surprising thing to find them
energetic or shrewd in business
matters. Southern writers are in the
habit of tacitly admitting the truth
of such assumptions by adverting
with pride to the fact that this or that
great industrial enterprise is eXclu-
sively in the hands of Southern men,
as though its success were all the more
remarkable under the circumstances.
When the average New Highlander
thinks of the south, his fancy conjures
up an indolent people who spend
their days swinging in hammocks on
wide verandas, with a little niger to
keep the flies off and iced drinks at
short intervals; with nothing to do
and plenty of time to do it in.
The idea is formed partly from
what they have read in romantic fic-
ton rather than in sober history, and
partly from the fact that the southern
races of the old world are indolent
and non-progessive; and they liken
our climate to that of Spain or Italy,
and attribute to our people the char
acteristics of the Latin races that
dwell in those countries.
In point of fact, nothing could be
farther from the truth. The people
of the southern states are in no sense
southern race, except that they are
south of New England; and the
climate bears less resemblance to that
of Italy or Spain than it does to that
of southern England. The difference
in latitude is remarkable. Turin,
Italy, is farther north of the equator
than Montreal, Canada. The nearest
approach in the. United States to the
climate of Italy is found in California,
portions of which resemble southern
France.
The southern states lie truly in a
temperate zone. Everything that
grows in a temperate climate grows
here, and nothing grows here, except
on the southern coast, that will grow
in tropical climate. There is moth
ing in the climate to enervate the
human race. On the contrary, it is
well fitted in its equablenesS for the
highest development and greatest
happiness of mankind. Statistics
show that it is neither as. hot in sum.
mer nor as cold in winter as New
York or Iowa. Thousands Of white
men work in fields every day in
summer, and sunstrOkes are almost
unknown, even in the large cities
There is scarcely a day in winter
when out door work is not pleasant
The rate of mortality is lower among
the white people in the south than il
the north. The prairie lands o
Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi
Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas are
as healthful as any in the world.
The southern people belong TO ;
race that has preserved its character
istics in every quarter of the globe
The Anglo-SaXon is at home in India
or Australia, in South Africa or il
Massachusetts. He is the conquero
of nature, as well as of nations. NJ
matter by how many generations h,
is removed from his native land, NJ
climate has made him slothful o
effeminate. He knows how to wral
himself in robes of ease and enjoy tn
pleasures of the senses to the utmost
but if occasion demands he is as stub
born and self-reliant as ever in subdu
ing the forces of nature or in assertin,
his supremacy over other races. TIL
people of Virginia inherit these chal
acteristics from the same ancestry a
the people of Massachusetts. TIL
south is behind the north in thos
arts, which in the aggregate con
tribute most to the wealth Of nations
but not from degeneracy of race Q
enervation of climate.
The cause lies almost altogether i
the blight of slavery. This custor
repealed immigration and so deprive
e